DEADtime TV: Week of 9/14/14

Hey DEADtime fans, it’s Ryne from The Moon is a Dead World. Got a bunch of horror TV shows lined up for you this week. Like usual, Shawn has Z Nation, Kevin is in Jamaica, apparently, so his shows are on hiatus until his return. Have fun, asshole.

The Lottery: “Truth Be Told” – Sunday, September 14 at 9 PM

I think we all saw this “assassinate the president” scheme coming a mile away, but at least The Lottery is making some good decisions with it. As Vanessa and Alison get closer to uncovering Darius’ evil scheming, it puts Vanessa in some very hot water because she’s attempting to coerce the president’s wife to change venues when they announce the 100 mothers. Finally, there’s some actual tension in the air! Not only that, but Darius also has to target his daughter because she knows about the assassination attempt. Familial drama abounds.

The thing about The Lottery is that it has some interesting ideas mixed in with a lot of junk that hasn’t been doing much of anything. In a way, all of the political intrigue that the show’s been stewing is less important, less interesting, than seeing the struggling mothers attempting to beat the odds to become one of the 100 fertilized women. With that said, when the show switches to that area of the subplot – Perry living in a Big Brother-style house, beating tests so that she can give her baby to the president’s wife – it doesn’t fit well with the other elements of the show.

So what does The Lottery do right? At the very least, it’s maintained that consistent inner turmoil between government officials. It’s strange that the show has morphed so much; now, it’s less about the scientific exploits of Alison, and more about Vanessa uncovering corruption in office. Even Kyle’s ventures to get his son back have sort of dropped out of the proceedings – in this episode, he uncovers the truth about what the MayTwos want, and lets Alison in on that secret, but there’s no real momentum there.

“Truth Be Told” doesn’t clear up much of the cluttered detritus of the story, either. Instead, it continues to branch off in tangents. Right now I’m not really sure why I’m supposed to care about Perry or her roommate’s death, because there’s nothing in that plot that easily segues into the stuff about assassinating the president. They’re spinning two (maybe three) different stories here and instead of crafting complexity, it just seems muddled.

But – truth be told – I think that we’re heading in a better direction than the chaotically scatterbrained first few episodes. The Lottery is settling into a groove with Darius, and while I’m not sure he’ll survive the season, at least that arc feels the most muscular. Now it’s up to the writers to pull the rest of the plots together.

Z Nation: “Fracking Zombies” – Friday, September 19 at 10 PM

Two episodes of Z Nation, and I have to say that I’m enjoying it. I mean, obviously it’s a low-budget Walking Dead clone, but it also has clever moments, almost taking Jabs at the seriousness of that show. The first episode ended with a character we were convinced was THE character, being eaten by a baby. Now that he is out of the way, Sgt. Garnett(Tom Everett Scott) is leading a motley crew of survivors from New York, to California, in order to deliver the only known survivor of a zombie attack. After running out of gas, the group encounters a couple of shady-looking bikers. A few more miles down the road, and one of said bikers appears alone, claiming that his partner robbed him and left him for dead. He tells them that he knows where they can get gas. They follow him to a refinery, where there is indeed gas, but it also serves as the home for a thousand zombies. As the group scrambles a plan to distract the zombies long enough to fill a tanker of gasoline, we discover that the reason he is there, is that he recognized one of the survivors as an ex-member of his group, and he has been sent to abduct her, and bring her back. Unfortunately for him, she knows how to kick a dude in the nuts and throw him to the zombies.

As useless as his character is, Keith Allan as Murphy is probably my favorite of the show. He’s so whiny, and contributes absolutely nothing to the group, but his gloomy dry-wit makes any scene he is in entertaining. In this episode he’s sitting in the SUV with the token redneck of the group, Doc(Russell Hodgkinson) away from the action, you know, since he is the cure for all humanity. Apparently since he was half-eaten by zombies, he developed a phobia. So, he spends much of this episode cowering in the corner of a truck, whining and crying, and it’s hilarious. Overall, each of the characters in this show is interesting in one way or another. Brand newbie, Nat Zang plays a silent-but-deadly assassin, and his character gets to show us a little bit of what he can do in this episode. Yeah, it’s great to have a sniper, but he also has these little blades that he fires at the zombies with a slingshot, and it makes for some awesome kills.

I’m honestly shocked at how much I am enjoying this show so far. Yeah, it’s pretty goofy in places, but it’s interesting, funny and exciting. If you like prefer your zombie movies dramatic, you might not find what you’re looking for here. I am a fan of The Walking Dead, but I can also appreciate a similar show that takes itself a little less seriously, while maintaining a solid combination of fun comedy, and extremely gory kills and deaths. I think if this show continues at the pace that it is going, I will thoroughly enjoy it, and even hope for a second season. I wasn’t looking forward to covering this when we were splitting up the fall shows, but it has pleasantly surprised me. It’s not going to be for everyone, but I can see this gathering a cult following. As long as it remains interesting and entertaining that is. The kills are gory, the characters are quirky, and there’s a lot going on in each episode. I’ll definitely continue covering this show. It feels like I’m on vacation, compared to when I was covering Extant. Fuck that show, seriously.

Next week, we lose Under the Dome and Teen Wolf. But we’ll pick up Gotham and Sleepy Hollow. Stay tuned!